360 degrees of inspiration

When the Smiths revamped their Devon home, they found a builder who catered to their every whim, says Cally Law

The trouble with hills, from a building point of view, is that they aren’t flat. But then Stuart and Pat Smith aren’t builders (they run an IT training business) and when they first saw the Golf House, perched high over Dartmouth in Devon, they saw only a site with spectacular views.

Four and a half years later, they gaze for miles over sky, dale and water from the comfort of their own home, while their builder has been named Master Builder of the Year 2006, partly for coping with those precipitous slopes.

But Peter Passmore, of Manor Building Company (Torbay), had more than just wonky levels to deal with. The Smiths, by their own admission, are prone to last-minute changes of mind. When Pat fell in love with a gigantic L-shaped sofa, for instance, the central room of the house had to be rebuilt around it, which involved shifting a